Must stop!

In his state of the nation address, President Danny Faure informed that one practice must stop; that is: ‘people seeking a plot of land must not be told to seek one on their own’. He had his reasons for putting an end to this manner of doing things. The practice was a double edged sword. On the one hand, some privileged few was granted the liberty to select exactly what portion of land they wanted including its location while others were sent on a wild goose chase ending up with nothing. Because of their connections, the former group got whatever they wanted and here we have a typical example to highlight how unfair the practice has been for so long. In 2008 at a time when Mr Charles Bastienne was CEO, PMC, a plot of land with four houses on it was subdivided and sold to two sisters whereby each sister became the proud owner of two houses each. These houses were under the management of PMC at the time housing four families. One year later, two additional plots were subdivided from a bigger plot to be amal- gamated to the plots bought one year earlier for each of the two sisters; Lucy and Erna.

At the time of the sale, Lucy was the Principal Secretary in the Department of Public Administration. By the time she bought the second parcel she had been made Principal Secretary with Special Responsibilities in the President’s office. Erna was made minister for health not long after that.

President Faure’s decision will, once and for all, put a stop to the abusive practice by senior executives in government. Less fortunate people have been contributing towards a house for years and are yet to make their way up the priority list.